Installation view of Filwa Nazer, Topoanalysis (14 & 8), 2024, A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World, Abbazia di San Gregorio, Venice, 2026.
A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World is a major exhibition presented by the Saudi Ministry of Culture at the Abbazia di San Gregorio in Venice, running from May 6 to November 22.
Curated by Sara Almutlaq and Aurora Fonda, with associate curators Zaira Carrer and Amina Diab
the exhibition explores how maps—historical and contemporary—shape the way we understand and imagine the world. Spanning from the 13th century to the present, it brings together historical cartography, archival objects, and contemporary artworks to show how mapping has always been a mix of science, myth, imagination, and political interpretation.
The exhibition places early European and Arabian maps alongside artifacts and manuscripts that highlight long-standing cultural and trade exchanges across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. Contemporary artists intervene throughout the space, reinterpreting cartography as a poetic, political, and sensory tool.
Filwa Nazer presents works from her series Topoanalysis. Delicated to using textile as a means of questioning the emotional and psychological identity in relation to spatial and social contexts.her works construct intimate spatial topographies that move between embodiment and disembodiment, revealing the tensions between interior and exterior, presence and separation, and the fragile boundaries that define lived experience.
May 6–November 22, 2026
